Cisco IT constantly looks for new ways to go faster and simplify. As part of its digital IT strategy, the Cisco Cloud and Software IT (CSIT) organization wanted to adopt more Agile development as a way to replace periodic major releases with continuous delivery of new features.

“Our goals are to speed up releases, increase productivity, and improve quality,” says Ashish Pandey, technical lead for the CSIT team.

Although a few small teams had adopted Agile techniques, waterfall was still the norm for teams that were large, distributed, or working on complex projects.

To solve these challenges, CSIT moved to the Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®) and immediately began applying Agile practices on two major initiatives: their Subscription Billing Platform, and Webex app for Samsung tablets.

Cisco ® Subscription Billing Platform

Challenge

For its Subscription Billing Platform (SBP)—which supports various subscription services—the company originally formed different teams for design, build, test and deploy. In waterfall fashion, each team began work once the previous team had completed their part.

Solution

All three trains worked together to build and test small features within one SaaS component, while regularly delivering tested features to the system integration and testing team.

Every day, the delivery team met for 15 minutes and determined action items.

Results – 40% Defect Reduction

Cisco delivered the new release of SBP on time and with all planned capabilities. When the company compared this release to those using waterfall, it found a 16 percent drop in the defect rejected ratio (DRR). Plus, critical and major defects decreased by 40 percent.

Continuous delivery also increased defect removal efficiency (DRE) by 14 percent due to greater collaboration among international teams, and by helping members identify opportunities for improvement during daily meetings.

The CSIT team attributes those quality improvements to several factors:

Improving team collaboration and focus

Enabling all team members to see current project status, promoting accountability

Helping the three teams see beyond their own track

Enabling teams to manage themselves

Additionally, the new way of working improved employee satisfaction by eliminating the need for after-hours work and reducing meetings and calls. Employees also saw how they fit into the bigger picture.

WebEx® App for Samsung

Challenge

In early 2014, the application for WebEx Meetings came pre-installed on Android tablets. Leading up to the release, developers had to work quickly to meet the release date, despite frequently changing requirements.

Solution

The team followed an Agile Scrum framework with three sprints for geographic rollout, the first two consisting of three weeks and the last of five weeks.

During planning, Cisco IT and others gathered requirements, and evaluated the readiness of environments, partners, and engineering and marketing teams.
Developers employed extreme programming, including test-driven development, where they first write an automated test case for a new function. Then they produced the minimal amount of code needed to pass the test and then refined code to make it simpler and easier to maintain.

Results – 25% Reduction in Quality Assurance Defects

On the WebEx app, Cisco reduced quality assurance defects by 25 percent. Plus, with developers checking code in several times a day, the business group reviewed new features sooner in the cycle than before. And each sprint ran more efficiently than the last.

Ultimately, Samsung sold more than 35 million tablets with the new app, creating wide exposure for the brand.

Organization
Cisco

Industry
Technology

Challenge

Cisco wanted to shift away from waterfall, and replace periodic major releases with continuous delivery of new features.

Solutions

SAFe®

Agile Scrum framework

Results

Cisco achieved significant improvements by using SAFe on two major projects:

16% drop in the defect rejected ratio (DRR)

40% decrease in critical and major defects

14% increase in defect removal efficiency (DRE)

Improved employee satisfaction by eliminating the need for after-hours work and reducing meetings/calls

25 percent fewer quality assurance defects

Sprints that ran more efficiently each subsequent time

Sharing Best Practices

Carefully build teams – Build teams with the best members from any location.

Assemble the right tools – Cisco realized it could not have conducted regression testing every two weeks without test automation tools.

Adjust as needed – For un-integrated or loosely integrated products, features or components, consider eliminating the Program level of SAFe.